Taxi driver who has claimed against seven motorists says he’s not ‘personal injuries faker’

A taxi driver who claimed that an 80-year-old woman drove into his leg four times after she rear-ended him has insisted: “I’m not a personal injuries faker.”

Serial claimant Talal Khan last week abandoned a €60,000 case against pensioner Ursula Fowler after the claim was described as “untruthful, bizarre and grotesque” in court.

Her barrister, Shane English, told the Circuit Civil Court the cab driver had made the same allegations against one of SIX other motorists he sued for personal injury.

Mr English also put it to the taxi man that he had not divulged several other accidents he had been involved in, and that he had refused to divulge how much compensation he obtained from his previous cases.

But when approached by the Sunday World this week, Mr Khan insisted he had not been untruthful in his highly-publicised claim and said he had divulged the details of his previous awards in his personal injuries assessment board report.

Asked whether he was very unlucky to have been in so many accidents, he denied this, saying: “Driving a taxi, you are on the road all the time.

“Unfortunately with these sorts of cases, people have to understand, normal people drive 10 to 12 hours in a week, for us (taxi drivers) we do nine to 10 hours in a day — so the amount of risk on the road is more.”

Detailing the cases for which he has already received settlements, he said the accidents had occurred in 2007, 2008 2011 and 2013.

Asked why he refused to tell the court how much he had received in compensation from his previous claims, Mr Khan said: “They didn’t ask me.

“I can give you the figure, but it is not a big figure. €10,500, €15,000 and €18,500.

“The first two cases, because it was the same company, Aviva, they merged the two cases together and gave me €10,500.”

Asked about his outstanding personal injuries case, Mr Khan said: “I think that case should be ok.

“In that case, I was sitting at a traffic light and somebody came at me and bang?

“At five o’clock in the morning. Nobody on the street. I’m the only one person.

“What happened with that guy is that a water-bottle got under his brake pedal so he could not brake and that’s why he ran into the back of me.

“He accepted that he did that so I should be with that case.”

During the withdrawn case heard before the Circuit Civil Court last week, Mr Khan claimed he had injured his neck and back when Ms Fowler collided with the rear of his taxi near Leopardstown in October 2019.

The 41-year-old claimed Ms Fowler had subsequently driven into him as he attempted to take a photo of her car and that he had fallen onto her bonnet after she reversed and then drove four times into his leg, injuring his knee and ankle.

Mr English told him Ms Fowler would tell the court he had bullied her by driving out of a bus lane and forcing her to give way and allow him into her traffic lane.

He described his allegations of her having driven into his leg as ‘outrageous’ and told him he was ‘untruthful’ and ‘grossly exaggerating his injuries’ and what had happened.

When Judge O’Sullivan was told by Mr English he would be making an application for the court to dismiss Khan’s claim on the basis of misleading the court, the judge agreed to give the party a few minutes for talks.

When Khan’s barrister told the court he had been instructed to withdraw the €60,000 claim against Ms Fowler, Judge O’Sullivan said he thought it was a very sensible approach and would not say anything that he might have said.

When it was put to Mr Khan by this newspaper that the court had effectively been led to believe his was a false claim, he replied: “No, I have proof.

“I have a video I was not allowed to show.

“I said in that video: ‘Have you lost your f**king mind? … You keep hitting me in the leg.’

“That’s the words I used.”

​Asked if he was saying he was a genuine person and this was a genuine incident, he responded: “Yes!”

When further asked if he hadn’t made up the personal injuries to get money, he responded ‘No.’

“I suffered with the injury, I didn’t work, to be honest I have four kids and from time to time I struggle to carry my kids.”

Asked about Mr English’s suggestion that he had claimed for injuries to his back and neck in every single one of his accidents, Mr Khan replied: “This injury was to my leg.

“When the incident happened, I was standing in front of her car trying to get a picture and she hit me in my right knee and my leg was twisted on my ankle.”

When our reporter queried why he had withdrawn the claim if he is continuing to insist it was genuine, Mr Khan said: “If your solicitor and barrister are telling you: ‘We are going to lose the case. We have no hope. And if you lose you have to pay the other barrister’s fees of up to €15,000. What would you do?

​“Everything happened [in the court] very quickly, I didn’t have a chance to say in the court what was going on.

“The way Mr Shane English is doing it, he is a very intelligent guy, he adds up everything, summarises everything the way he wants and jumps onto the next question.

“He was not giving me a chance — and there was seven, eight questions and I didn’t get a chance to clear up the situation.

“To be honest he is very great, better than my barrister.”

Asked whether he now regrets having taken the case, Mr Khan said he does not.

“I’m not upset, I’m not happy with the way my solicitor played the game,” he said.

“The court case — everything was genuine.

“Personally, I don’t care what people are thinking, judging me or anything.

“I know the accident happened.

“And the allegation that people are saying this did not happen … it’s not true.”

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